


'cause no one ever really dies

by redsuns



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU
Genre: Gen, Lazarus Pit theories, but i feel like tht abt everything i write so. we're letting it happen, but like it leaves me the option to continue this so i'm not mad about it!, djinn, djinn possession but on a minor scale, i feel like i ended this on a weird spot, i feel like this is kind of all over the place, i just think it would be really cool if the people that used the lazarus pit ended up kinda spooky!, i promise this story IS abt jason but damian is a good vehicle for telling it just trust me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-18
Updated: 2020-01-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:34:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22307245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redsuns/pseuds/redsuns
Summary: The theory is this: there is something that lives in the Lazarus Pits. Something a little strange. Something, some would say, a little unnatural. Something that is not human. Something possessed Ra’s al-Ghul the first time he used a Pit. Something possessed Ra’s al-Ghul every time after that. Something possessed Damian’s mother, Talia.Something, however briefly, possessed Jason Todd.
Relationships: Damian Wayne & Dick Grayson & Barbara Gordon, Jason Todd & Damian Wayne, Past Talia al Ghul/Bruce Wayne - Relationship, Talia al Ghul & Jason Todd & Damian Wayne
Comments: 8
Kudos: 194





	'cause no one ever really dies

**Author's Note:**

> hello! this is my fic for thecomicscoven discord gift exchange! i saw jason n talia in ur likes and i was like finally. i can bring the lazarus pit djinn idea into reality
> 
> technically this would be an au bc jason and damian don't... have these powers in canon. but whom care. let them be a little spooky! let them be kinda strange! i'm very interested in djinn so let me indulge myself a bit! there IS a mix of real djinn lore and some stuff i made up for this fic, so like not everything in this is Stuff Djinn Do as far as i'm aware. but still i think djinn are cool and if u want to learn more abt them i will link a twitter thread in the end notes
> 
> title from brainsick by mystery skulls (i saved this title for this fic. i've wanted to write this for so long you have no idea i just need the motivation for it so thank you!!! fr)

There is something unnatural about Damian Wayne. Something a little off. People don’t always pick up on it. Sometimes someone will look right into his eyes, and he will see them experience a split-second of confusion and uncertainty. When he is out somewhere with Bruce or Dick, when he is not Robin and they are not Batman or Nightwing, they ask him to stay where they can see him. Not out of mistrust or out of fear, but out of a small instinct in the back of their minds that says to them: “Do not let this boy be taken from you. If you look away for too long, he may disappear. How will you find him then?” 

He is not the only one, he knows, who is unnatural in the way that he is. His grandfather, Ra’s al-Ghul, has an air not only of something unnatural, but of something viscerally wrong. His mother, Talia, does as well, but to a lesser extent. And lately he has noticed that this unnaturalness does not occur only in his own bloodline. 

Jason Todd is a little unnatural, too. 

Damian doesn’t remember the first time he notices it. Maybe it’s in a fight with the man, when the both of them move a little too strangely for two human boys. Damian throws a punch too strong for a boy his age. Jason dodges it a little too quick. Or maybe it’s when he sees Jason out of the corner of his eye, and it seems like the man is not all there. Damian recognizes this. It’s why he only looks into mirrors dead-on. 

Whatever it is, Damian cannot stop noticing it once he starts. He goes on patrol with Dick one night, and the Red Hood gets the drop on Nightwing. Dick doesn’t hear Jason approach. Damian doesn't either, but he knows when Jason is nearby. Jason comes home to the Manor for once, and Damian makes the mistake of glancing at a window as both of them walk by it. There is no one reflected in the glass. He spars with Jason, and they both attack and dodge and flip and attack again, faster and faster and faster. No one is in the Batcave when this happens. No one sees two human boys move too fast for the eye to see. 

Damian is not a metahuman. Neither is his mother, or his mother’s father, or Jason Todd. There is very little to explain all the ways in which they are a little unnatural. 

But Damian Wayne has a theory. 

There are only two other people that know about this theory: Dick Grayson, because Damian tells him everything he deems important, and Barbara Gordon, because Damian knows her ability to dig up research is unparalleled. Damian has not told his father about this theory, or any of his other siblings, or his mother, and certainly not his grandfather. He has not told Jason Todd about this theory. 

The theory is this: there is something that lives in the Lazarus Pits. Something a little strange. Something, some would say, a little unnatural. Something that is not human. Something possessed Ra’s al-Ghul the first time he used a Pit. Something possessed Ra’s al-Ghul every time after that. Something possessed Damian’s mother, Talia.

Something, however briefly, possessed Jason Todd. 

“But if possession were the only factor,  _ you _ wouldn’t be affected.” Barbara Gordon’s voice crackles in Damian’s ear. If he listens closely, he can make out the sound of her keys clacking, still noting down his theories.

“So maybe there’s something that changes at the genetic level.” Dick is crouched next to Damian, wind ruffling his hair. All three of them have found that the easiest time to talk about Damian’s Lazarus theory is when Dick and Damian are out on patrol. There’s less of a chance of someone else overhearing. 

Damian hums. “Djinn don’t need to adhere to human logic. Maybe it’s just residual energy from my mother.” He launches himself off of the roof, shooting a line to catch himself in mid-air. Dick follows easily, swinging through the sky like he weighs nothing. “We’re not trying to understand why it affects me. I want to know about the Pits themselves. Why do the djinn that live there possess people after they’re used? Is it revenge?”

“Revenge,” Dick murmurs, landing on the edge of a Wayne Enterprises building. “For using them?”

The sound of Barbara’s keyboard comes through the comms. “Djinn don’t seem to take kindly to their spaces being intruded on. Which makes sense, really. How’d you feel if someone barged into your house with a dead body?”

Dick snorts. Damian huffs out the quietest of laughs. 

“Obviously we don’t want to talk to Ra’s or Talia, but we could still ask Jason about this,” Dick says. 

Damian wrinkles his nose. “You might not want to talk to her, but I have no problem asking my mother.” He glances sideways at Dick.  _ “If _ you would stop being so weird about it.”

“It’s not a bad idea, Damian,” Barbara says, in both of their ears, “but we don’t want to risk Ra’s finding out.”

Damian huffs. “I know.”

He doesn’t get to ask his mother immediately. Instead, he goes to Bruce. 

“Baba,” he says. “Where’s Jason?”

Bruce spins around, closing the case files he’d been looking at with a swipe of his hand. The large screens behind him go blank. “Not at home, last I heard,” he says. “Why?”

Damian shakes his head, ignoring the question. “Do you know when Mother will be back in Gotham?”

“No,” Bruce says slowly. “But if you want to see her I can arrange something?”

“Not at the moment,” Damian says. “But if you hear word about either of them, please let me know. Also, Pennyworth says you’ve been down here for too long and that it’s time for you to eat.”

Bruce raises his eyebrows at his youngest son. “Let him know I’ll be right up.”

Damian nods and turns to exit the Batcave. He keeps his eyes deliberately averted from the renewed glow of Bruce’s screens; Dick has told him the bare bones of the case their father is working on, and this time Damian understands why he isn’t allowed on it. 

Alfred’s in the kitchen still. Damian takes a plate and remembers to thank him for dinner before going upstairs to his bedroom. Dick and Barbara are already there with their own food. Dick sits cross-legged on Damian’s bed. Barbara sits at the desk, Damian’s desk chair pushed aside to make space for her wheelchair. 

“Father says he doesn’t know where Todd is,” Damian reports, sitting at the foot of his bed. 

Barbara cocks her head. “But you know he’s in the city?”

Damian nods. 

“Okay, then.” she says. “Let’s see if you can find him.”

This experiment is Barbara’s idea. If Damian can sense when Jason’s headed towards him, he might be able to figure out Jason’s general location. It doesn’t do much in the way of contributing to Damian’s Lazarus theory, but it’s something interesting to take note of. Damian sets down his plate, crosses his legs, and closes his eyes. He hears shifting on the bed. “I moved your plate out of the way,” Dick says. Damian nods. He takes a deep breath. 

He’s used to meditation. Bruce champions it as a way to help cope with the stresses of vigilantism and being a teenager. Even before Bruce, he had been trained to clear his mind, even out his breathing, drop his heart rate. He’s not clearing his mind this time. Damian focuses on the feeling in his mind, the awareness that Jason Todd is somewhere in Gotham. He hears his heartbeat in his ears. He inhales. Hold for four seconds. Exhales. 

There’s nothing. Nothing. Nothing. And then—

“Downtown. Does Todd have any reason to be hanging out at Gotham U’s campus?” Damian opens his eyes to see Barbara turning toward her laptop. Dick nudges him, holding out his dinner. Damian takes it and begins scarfing it down, trying to look at what Barbara’s doing over her shoulder. 

“Maybe he’s secretly pursuing higher education,” Dick suggests. 

“At,” Damian checks the time, “nine forty-nine at night? Doubtful.”

A ringtone interrupts them before Dick can say anything. The two of them turn as one to look at Barbara and her laptop. The line rings one more time before someone picks up. 

“Can I help you?” Jason asks, voice clipped. He sounds like he’s breathing hard, but his voice isn’t distorted the way it usually is by his helmet. 

Dick jumps in before anyone else can speak. “Are you on the Gotham U campus? We’re doing an experiment.”

“What the hell kind of experiment?”

“Not important right now, just answer the question.”

Jason lets out a loud, slow exhale. “Yes. I’m at Gotham U. Is that all? I need to get going.”

“Yep!” Dick’s grinning and silently punching the air. “Have fun out there, stay out of trouble, look both ways before you cross the road!”

“I’m hanging up.” Jason hangs up. 

“You got it!” Dick whoops as soon as the line goes dead. “Dami, you did it!”

Damian can’t stop a grin from spreading across his own face. “I did!  _ Now _ can we ask my mother about it? We have something to go off of.”

Dick makes a face. Barbara taps her fingernails against Damian’s desk. Damian glances back and forth between the two of them. 

Talia al-Ghul becomes the third person to know about Damian’s Lazarus djinn theory. 

“Mama,” Damian says in Arabic, “what do you know about the effects of the Lazarus Pit?”

Talia sets down her coffee cup slowly. It clinks against the glass table. The two of them are sitting at a busy coffee shop in bustling New York City. Dick and Barbara sit a few tables away, at Damian’s insistence. They had wanted to sit at the table with Damian and his mother. He’d put his foot down. They still nodded stiffly at Talia when she walked in and haven’t taken their eyes off of the two of them since. Damian knows they can hear every word of this conversation through Damian’s comms, but he doesn’t doubt they’re trying to read lips too. He supposes they’ll at least get some Arabic practice in, if nothing else.

“Well,” Talia says. “You know it heals and resurrects. The price is temporary madness.” She tilts her head, brow furrowed, eyes flicking over to Dick and Barbara and then back to Damian. She reaches across the table and clasps Damian’s hands in her own. “Did something happen?”

Damian shakes his head, squeezing his mother’s hands. “No. It’s just… I’ve been thinking.”

His mother lets him speak, nodding and listening carefully without interrupting. She doesn’t let go of his hands, cradling them between hers as Damian weaves together details to support his hypothesis. She has an expression on her face that Damian recognizes from his own: eyes bright, lips pursed, one eyebrow arched. She’s taking in information, putting together puzzle pieces, watching as the big picture forms. 

She’s silent for a moment after he finishes speaking. Then, “Do you know what a  _ ghul _ is?”

Damian nods. “A type of djinn. They haunt cemeteries, mostly?”

“Your grandfather’s name wasn’t always al-Ghul. That is what he named himself after he used a Pit for the first time.” Talia folds her arms on the table, tapping her fingernails against the surface. “By the time I was born, he had been al-Ghul for decades at least.” She pauses for a moment. Damian doesn’t interrupt, letting her collect her thoughts.  _ “Ghul _ are said to feed on both the living and the dead. Lazarus Pits bring the dead back to life…” 

There is a connection that Damian does not realize until his mother says those words. “I’ve been trying to understand what reason the Lazarus djinn would have to possess the people who use the Pits, besides maybe revenge for encroaching on their territory.” He taps the edge of his teacup with his thumb rapidly. “Maybe it’s a way for them to feed? And it could explain some of the longer-lasting effects after using a Pit.”

Talia nods along slowly. “This still doesn’t explain why you would be affected by them.”

“No, but it does.” Damian notices Dick straighten up in his seat out of the corner of his eye. “If the Lazarus djinn possess people in order to feed, then repeated use of the Lazarus Pits has to cause some kind of significant change. It’s hard to say what change exactly, but it’s not unreasonable to assume that this change can be passed down. You said yourself that my grandfather had been using the Pits for ages before you were born. Maybe that passed on some of the Pit’s effects to you, but no one noticed since you also started using the Pits. And both of those factors compounded means that I get the Pit’s effects too. Just as much as someone who’s used the Pits before, even though I never have.” He exhales in a rush. “It makes an incredible amount of sense. Thank you, Mama.” 

His mother smiles at him. “There is no need to thank me, my son. I would help you anywhere and any time.”

Something in Gotham’s air unsettles Damian tonight. Something unfamiliar stalks through the city. A breeze blows and he feels goosebumps rise on his skin. Bruce’s cape rustles and he tenses up. A siren wails in the distance and he turns his head to follow the sound. 

“Oracle?” he murmurs into his comms. Bruce glances over at him. 

“Hey,” Barbara’s voice comes through. “What’s up?”

Damian rises from his crouching position. “Find Red Hood for me. Something’s wrong.”

He hears her hum an affirmative and starts typing away. Beside him, Bruce stands up too. 

“What’s wrong?” his father asks. 

Damian shakes his head. “Just trust me, Father.”  _ Father, _ not  _ Baba, _ and Bruce must pick up on this difference because he simply nods and lets Damian take the lead. Barbara guides them through the city to a rooftop near the university. That’s the second time in only a couple of weeks that they’ve found Jason there. Damian files that away in his brain for later.

Jason’s already looking in their direction as they approach. For once, he doesn’t make any remark about the Bat trying to keep an eye on him or keep him in line, just nods at Damian and says, “You feel it too, huh?”

“Will you come with us?” Damian says. 

Jason tips his head and waves a hand in Damian’s direction. “Lead the way.”

They take the long way back to the Batcave, twisting and turning and doubling back on themselves. Bruce stays silent the whole time, but Damian can feel his father’s eyes on his back. All three of them are tense, flinching at every sound. 

Damian feels something new as they approach the Batcave. This presence, unlike whatever he’s been feeling all night, does not scare him. He feels comforted. He feels safe. He knows who it is before they see the figure in the Batcave. 

He feels Bruce stop in his tracks behind himself and Jason. 

Talia turns around. She says, “Hello, beloved.”

“I thought about what you told me,” Talia says, standing in the kitchen of Wayne Manor. Damian sits on the counter. Jason and Dick sit on the barstools at the island. Bruce paces behind them. Alfred stands at the stove, boiling water in a kettle. Barbara isn’t at the Manor, but her face lights up Damian’s laptop screen. “If you can sense other Pit users, and you and Jason can sense each other and me, then other Pit users should be able to sense you.” She puts her hands on her hips and exhales loudly. “That includes my father. And  _ that _ is the last thing I want.”

_ “What _ do you mean?” Bruce cuts in, coming to an abrupt standstill. “What do you mean  _ sense other Pit users? _ What do you mean  _ what you told me? _ What the hell is going on?”

“I haven’t told him yet,” Damian tells his mother. 

“Tell me now, then!” Bruce exclaims. He doesn’t raise his voice, but there’s barely-restrained fear and worry in his tone. The kettle reaches a boil, accentuating his words with its shrill whistle. Alfred calmly turns off the stove, pours the water into a mug waiting on the counter, and pushes the mug into Bruce’s hands. Damian and Jason look at each other, then at Dick, then at Barbara’s face on the screen, then at Talia, then back at each other.

“I’m not doing it,” Jason says.

Damian sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. Surely he’s too young for this many headaches. “Fine. Baba, what do you know about djinn?”

Bruce is silent while Damian speaks. Talia comes to stand beside her son, putting a hand on his shoulder. Jason watches quietly. He knows most of this theory through confronting Dick and Barbara, but not some of the finer details.

Damian finishes laying out his theory and Bruce still doesn’t say anything. He looks down into his now-empty mug of tea. Damian gives his father a minute before slipping off the counter and tugging his arm. 

“Let me show you,” he says. 

He leads everyone through the Manor to the library, holding his laptop. “I don’t know if this will come through the way I want it to,” he tells Barbara.

“I’ve already seen it,” she replies. “Don’t worry about me.” 

Damian nods and sets the laptop down on an armchair. He reaches for Jason and beckons. Jason walks over, stands beside him in front of the large windows. It’s dark outside and the lights in the library are on, making their reflections easily visible. 

“Look,” he says, “but not directly. Out of the corner of your eye.” He demonstrates, turning his head to the side, fixing his gaze on one of the bookcases but keeping his reflection in his peripheral. Jason does the same. He doesn’t say anything. 

“Oh,” Bruce says, barely above a whisper. Damian glances over at his father to see all the blood drained from his face. He looks scared. He looks sad. 

“Talia’s reflection is doing it too,” Jason says. Damian turns his head this way and that, until he can see the way his mother’s reflection appears and disappears just like his and Jason’s. 

There’s a quiet thump as Bruce sits down heavily. He puts his face in his hands. Everyone gives him a moment. 

“Get up, Baba,” Damian says. “There’s more.”

They all troop down to the Batcave. Damian once again puts his laptop down where Barbara can easily see everything that’s about to happen. Only he and Jason have witnessed this part. 

Jason settles into a fighting stance, dropping his center of gravity lower and planting his feet. Damian rocks up onto the balls of his feet, keeping himself light. They two of them wait, nearly unmoving. 

Damian lunges first. Jason dodges out of the way and reaches for Damian leg, likely intending to take it and throw him. Damian rolls out of the way and aims a kick at Jason’s stomach. It connects, but Jason doesn’t react. Damian has to flip backwards to dodge the punch Jason throws. It goes on like this, punching and kicking and dodging and flipping, over and over in some kind of rhythm. Damian’s heartbeat pounds in his ears. His focus is narrowed only to this fight, to his next move, to reading Jason’s tiny tiny tells. The savage grin on Jason’s face mirrors his own. 

When they stop, both breathing hard and dripping with sweat, everyone else in the room is silent. The two of them turn as one to take in their reactions. Only Bruce looks truly surprised, which makes sense; Damian had already told Dick and Barbara, so they were probably prepared, and he doesn’t doubt that Talia has experienced this herself. 

“When did you… when did you figure this out?” Bruce asks.

Damian shrugs. “Me? Not too long. I told Richard and Barbara a few months ago and we’ve been working on refining the theory since.”

Jason makes a face. “I knew I was weird after I came back. I didn’t know why until the brat started tracking me down without leaving the house.”

This makes Bruce make a face too. “What do you mean?”

Jason looks at Damian, then back at Bruce. “The kid’s been randomly calling me asking if I’m somewhere. And he’s always right, give or take a few blocks. I’ve never tried to find him,” here he side-eyes Damian, “but I don’t doubt that I could if I wanted to.”

“I knew Mama was here before we saw her,” Damian adds. “Something about this makes it possible for us to find each other. The reason I found Todd and took us home was—”

“There’s something in Gotham,” Jason cuts in. Damian narrows his eyes at him. “Something that doesn’t feel right. The brat made a good call.”

“It’s my father, “ Talia says finally. “He himself is not here, but he’s sent agents to Gotham. That’s why I came. I can make it so they can’t detect you for now, but you have to learn how to do it yourselves as well.” 

“And how do we know you’re not going to lead them right to us?” Bruce snaps. This time there is only fear in his voice. 

Talia bristles. “Do you think I would put my sons in danger? My father will lay a hand on either of them over my dead body, do you hear me? I do not care what I have to do to keep them safe.” She steps closer to Bruce until they’re nose to nose, steely gazes locked, neither of them backing down. Damian and Jason and Dick and Barbara all look at each other. 

Barbara sighs. “So, should I come over?”

They’re all back in the kitchen, Barbara physically present this time, as Talia lays out her strategy. 

“The reason you can sense each other is because of low-level psychic abilities granted by the Pit djinn,” she says. “Your minds recognize each other because they have been exposed to similar things. So. What do more powerful psychics do in order to protect their minds?” She pauses here and looks expectantly at everyone gathered around. 

“Mental barriers,” Bruce says. “Even non-psychics do it, to keep their minds from being read.”

Talia nods. Damian thinks he sees a hint of a smile. “Exactly. I’m sure you’ve both learned the basics from your father. That is where you start.”

“Hang on,” Jason says. “If you do this,” he waves his hand vaguely, “shielding yourself, how come me and Damian knew you were here?”

The smile on Talia’s face grows to something truly visible. “That is an excellent question. I choose not to shield myself from my allies, so that they can locate or recognize me if need be. My father and his agents would never be able to find me, but the two of you would.”

“And they don’t know how to shield like this?” Damian asks. “If they would, we wouldn’t have been able to sense them.” 

Talia wrinkles her nose. “For their training, they are incredibly clumsy at it. Likely because they do not understand the added effects of Pit exposure. After all, you cannot guard against a vulnerability you are not aware of.”

“Alright,” Jason says. “So how do  _ we _ do it? I can do a mental blockade, sure. But that’s a blanket thing, against everyone.”

“Easy,” Talia says. “You naturally relax around those you feel safe with. Your mind does the same thing, letting them in. You just have to identify what that safety feels like, and your brain does the rest.”

Damian only notices Jason stiffen because they’re sitting next to each other. A quick glance at everyone else shows that, while all of them are looking at Damian and Jason, none of them have noticed Jason’s sudden discomfort. Very slowly, Damian kicks Jason under the table. It’s more of a tap against his ankle, but it’s enough to make Jason relax every so slightly. 

“So no matter who else I block against, you will be able to detect me if I acknowledge that I am safe with you?” Damian asks. 

Talia nods. 

Damian follows up with another question. “Then is it more of an  _ acknowledgment _ or do I truly have to feel safe?” He notices Jason glance at him out of the corner of his eye. He hopes the man doesn’t say anything. 

Talia hums, thinking. “I suppose feeling truly safe is a difficult ask. We can try it with an acknowledgement and see how well it works, if you’d like.” She doesn’t seem hurt by his question, eyes flicking between him and Jason. There’s a glimmer of something in her eye. Damian wants to call it pride. 

“And how are you going to train them?” Bruce asks. “They’re hardly going to leave the Manor if there’s people out there hunting them.”

Jason bristles visibly at Bruce’s words. “What makes you think you get to keep us cooped up here?” he says, standing up. Damian and Dick reach for him automatically, each grabbing one of his arms. Dick tries to gently coax him back into his seat. Damian just tugs, hard. 

“Please behave like an adult, Todd. I’m forcibly associated with you now and I’d rather not deal with childish behaviour.” 

Jason bristles again, but Talia cuts in before he can say anything. “I’ll be staying here,” she says. 

Everyone falls silent. Damian’s grip on Jason’s arm goes slack. Bruce leans back in shock. Dick and Barbara raise their eyebrows in unison. 

“Cool,” Jason says, his smile once again mirroring Damian’s own. “Sleepover.”

**Author's Note:**

> [this is the thread i mentioned in the beginning note!](https://twitter.com/aaolomi/status/1156641988101332993) i used this+prior knowledge abt djinn from like growing up muslim as a jumping off point for the concept of djinn in this fic.
> 
> i'm on [twitter](https://twitter.com/criticaihits) and [tumblr](https://sunprophets.tumblr.com/) as always


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